Citizens' Daily Lobby

A Facebook friend recently recommended a page to me, for a group optimistically entitled “No Labels.”   The purpose of the group (I paraphrase) is to fight against the increasing polarization of American politics by bringing people of diverse viewpoints together to move America forward.   No labeling, no name-calling, just principled debate.

This is a noble purpose.   The “can’t we just get along?” movement has existed in various forms at least since the days when Jesus Christ made turning the other cheek a virtue.    Pacification, unlike passive resistance, however, has largely worked in favor of aggressors.   It is the reality of today that the political group or candidate capable of making the best labels wins.   Talk shows, political ads, and even what passes for serious journalism all promote the propagation of ideas as sound bites.

It’s no secret that the Republican party has the best label makers on the planet, and that largely explains why it is dominating public discourse.   It’s not likely that Conservatives (at the risk of using a label here) are going to stop throwing around the label “Socialist” where it isn’t warranted, or to stop referring to health care reform as “Obamacare.”   Those who consider themselves “Pro Life” aren’t going to give up that label, no way.  They know that the label, regardless of the validity of the actual position, lends them the appearance of a higher moral authority.  I wish the public discourse were based on debate instead of emotionally charged and often misleading monikers, but it isn’t.

For better or worse, labels sell.  Labels persuade voters.   Labels are easy to scrawl on a handy piece of cardboard and easily chanted with a crowd.  Labels identify, motivate, intimidate, pigeonhole.  They are, like so many things, a force for good or evil.  What the No Labelers (again a label) really seem to want is scrupulous, judicious label use.  After all, some positive labels are worth keeping, and some evils must rightly be so labeled.

I’m all for raising the level of discourse.  I think the work must begin with the media and the advertisers who promote their products while supporting those programs that misuse labels, mislead the public, and promote the most extreme polarization of politics.   Voters must take responsibility for their own fast-food mentality towards politics.   One might say the American brain is running to fat on a steady diet of shock jock radio and billboards.

The Tea Party looks a lot like the GOP because it IS largely a Republican group.  A recent Gallup poll finds that a whopping 62% of Tea Party “Patriots” self-identify as conservative Republicans.  17% consider themselves to be moderate or liberal Republicans.  Only 7% identify as truly independent.  This means that 79% of Tea Partiers are Republicans, and, indeed, 80% of those polled say they will vote for their local GOP candidates this fall.  (As continuing evidence of irrationality in modern America, 15% of those polled identify themselves as Democrats.  Here in Arkansas, we call those people “Lincoln voters”).

The Tea Party is a GOP re-branding effort targeted to capture the hearts and minds (such as they are) of the politically dispossessed, while keeping the party’s real platform safely in the hands of the political class and the corporate elite.

This guy is a pretty good stand-up comic, as well as an outspoken liberal.